Creative Industries: Qualifications

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Thursday 23rd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, for initiating this debate. I should also like to give a shout out to level 1 and level 2 qualifications, because level 1 may go to an adult who has never gained a national qualification, and the boost to confidence around learning and the sense of achievement can be life-changing. Level 1 may well lead to someone going on to level 2 and even level 3—someone who had written themselves off as dim and useless until national recognition, even at a lowly level, encouraged and incentivised them. Level 3 is evidence of someone who has the skills and knowledge to operate on their own in their chosen field.

Creative skills used to be validated and awarded by City & Guilds, where I worked for 20 years, initially on hairdressing, wig-making and beauty therapy—one can be quite versatile in this life, I find—and allied skills. In all those areas, it was possible to go all the way to fellowship at level 7. I then moved on to look after the senior awards, levels 4 to 7, with post-nominal letters and gowns and hoods to indicate their parity with university degrees.

Sadly, City & Guilds was betrayed by the then chairman, chief executive and finance officer, who managed to bypass the trustees, council and president—the Princess Royal—of this long-standing royal charter charity founded by the City of London and livery companies in 1878 and highly regarded around the world for the quality and standards of its work-based qualifications. They sold the awarding part to a foreign-owned commercial company, PeopleCert. A small team has been left under the title of the City & Guilds Foundation to continue to support the charitable activities and sustain the royal charter. Two of the three perpetrators were given lucrative welcomes and subsequently sacked. How strange life can be. Anyway, the Charity Commission is investigating how this could happen, as is a growing band of staff, members, fellows and friends of the institute, but what is crucial is that candidates do not suffer for this. The qualifications that they are working for will continue to be delivered, because they do not deserve to be deflected by the machinations of people who should have known better. We have been assured that this will be the case and that the qualifications will continue to be to the highest standard, as they always were.

There is always a problem with vocational practical technical qualifications. Most parliamentarians and civil servants have gone the university route. They do not know about further education colleges and the amazing work that they do or the very wide range of qualifications and individuals they support, so they meddle, in a way that we do not see with GCSE or A-level. We continue to have BTECs, understood by students, universities, employers and, crucially, many parents, but they are now under threat as the newer, shinier T-levels—technical, you understand, being so much classier than vocational—arrive on the scene, to be followed by V-levels. Come back, vocational, all is forgiven. It takes a while for any new qualification to be understood and valued, more so for practical than academic ones. Just as T-levels have taken a while to find their place, who knows how long it will take for V-levels to be the talk of the town?

We should thank the university technical colleges, the valuable UTCs of the noble Lord, Lord Baker, which provide a clear path to skilled employment, because a number of them have developed particular expertise in supporting the creative industries, where employers continue to face skills shortages. The creative industries are among the most valued and valuable of our industries. The UK leads the world in many of these skill sets. The Heritage Crafts Association produces a regular list of endangered crafts, some continued by a sole trader, where taking on an apprentice would severely affect their ability to earn a living. Yet anyone who embarks on silversmithing, clock-making, enamelling, basket-making or upholstering knows the immense satisfaction in creativity. I will not talk about music, because the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, has spoken so eloquently about that, but music and dance are vital skills which really enhance life. If we lost any of these skills, it would be a real loss to our quality of life as well as to the economy, so we should venture with extreme caution in changing qualifications that are valued and understood.

Why not put effort into attracting the young, and not so young, into supporting crafts in danger which could enrich their lives? Why are the Government embarking on V-levels when there are already established qualifications for the creative industries? Many are under threat and need support, not a pointless exercise in rebranding. There are level 3 diplomas and extended diplomas with some 84,000 students, who do not need to be distracted by the arrival of a new kid on the block in the form of mysterious V-levels. Please will the Minister commit to pause defunding of existing creative levels 1, 2 and 3 qualifications until creative T-levels and V-levels have been fully designed and piloted and shown to deliver work-based standards and comparable outcomes for progression? This is particularly important for SEND learners and disadvantaged students, many of whom may have talents in creativity far in excess of their abilities in other subjects. I look forward to the Minister’s reply and, like others, I welcome her back to her brief.

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[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)]

My Lords, in adjourning, I hope the House will indulge me in wishing all noble Lords, the clerks, the staff—especially the doorkeepers—and everyone involved in the House a very happy and restful Summer Recess.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

I echo that. Have a very well-earned rest.

House adjourned at 5.42 pm.